Review: Love, Marriage, and Other Disasters by Shilpa Suraj

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Alisha Rana is not your typical single desi girl. For one, she is on the wrong side of 30. For another, she is divorced. Alisha doesn’t want much. But what she does want is that elusive thing all women search for – A man who gets her…but a man who gets her hot! She calls it “feeling the squiggle.”

Enter Dr. Vivaan Kapoor, cute, hot, squiggle-worthy. The younger brother of her cousin's prospective groom, he’s got the squiggle factor in spades. The only catch? He's never been married and is years younger than Alisha. Basically, completely off-limits.


The story starts with a date going very wrong and I immediately felt a kinship with Alisha who still managed to keep her sense of humor intact, even if it borders on sarcasm. But to be fair, the world deserves it most times. Her relationship with her best friend, her colleagues, and even with the girl who is so mean to her, all reflect her good nature and sensibility. She has an excellent rapport with her parents and relatives too and maybe that is why I also understood her doubts about the one guy who makes her feel special but in her head, he is totally off-limits. 

Vivaan is an early-achiever, kind, fun, and charming person who falls in love with Alisha from the first time he sees her. It is really bittersweet to see him try to woo Alisha every possible way and still be rejected only because Alisha has convinced herself that Vivaan is not the right person to marry even if he is the one guy who makes her "feel the squiggle".

Love, Marriage, and other disasters is a very realistic and appropriate story of love & marriage as perceived through society's glasses and how it shapes people's choices. It is a story of how past relations can make us unsure of our decisions in the future for a long time but accepting and acknowledging the same is the first step to be free. There are lot of small scenes in the story which are very commonly seen and heard in real life and they drive the story forward beautifully. 

I really liked this story and would love to read more about one of the characters in the book that plays a very pivotal role in cementing the love story of Alisha & Vivaan. 

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